Occidental’s Sibling Revelry

Tom Bonetto’s dormitory room door was decorated for part of last year with a collection of newspaper articles that chronicled the baseball accolades of a high school athlete.

No egocentric urge inspired the collage. Tom had no yearning to leave Occidental College and relive his glory days at Big Bear High, yet there were the clippings:

Bonetto Strikes Out 18. Bonetto Drafted in the 56th Round by the Cleveland Indians. Bonetto This. Bonetto That.

Bonetto, yes. Tom, no. The subject of the clippings was his younger brother, Mike.

And Mike’s accomplishments were worthy of display.

Big Bear High has an enrollment of 600 students and competes in athletics at the Southern Section 1-A Division level. Still Mike, who played quarterback on the football team and pitched for the baseball team, received scholarship offers from Pepperdine, Cal State Northridge and Long Beach State. Professional baseball scouts also took note of the way Mike, a left-hander, gunned his fastball.

But last summer, Mike threw everybody a curve. Instead of pursuing a career in the Indians organization or accepting a Division I scholarship, he decided to attend Occidental, a Division III school with just 1,600 students.

Tom, a junior who has started at second base since his freshman year, wasn’t going to argue. Nor was his father, himself an Occidental graduate who was a two-time all-Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference baseball selection and an assistant coach at Big Bear.

Mike cites the fact that both his parents attended Occidental--and his desire to play both baseball and football--as his reasons for choosing the college.

“I made a point that I would never look back on anything,” Mike said. “When I make a decision, I go for it.”

Mike has temporarily tired of pitching and has switched his focus to hitting. He is the Tigers’ designated-hitter and, on occasion, plays first base. With three games to play in the regular season, he has 10 home runs--one off the school record.

Mike could break the record this weekend when the Tigers finish up against Caltech, a school which has traditionally had more students with high grade-point averages than low earned-run averages. But the Caltech pitchers figure to be smart, which means Bonetto isn’t likely to get anything good to hit.

“He’s getting walked so much now it’s incredible,” Occidental Coach Jeff Henderson said of Mike, who was walked five times against Redlands last weekend. He leads the team with 33 walks.

It must be unnerving for pitchers to see Bonetto’s 6-foot-2, 190-pound frame hunkering over the plate waiting. At 6 feet and 165 pounds, Tom is far less imposing.

“I was such a small kid,” Tom said. “I was in junior high and he was in elementary school and we were the same size. He’s never really been a little brother to begin with because he’s so big.”

Still, Tom, a right-hander, has been even more prolific than Mike at the plate. He is batting a team-high .432 and moved into third on the school’s all-time single-season hit list with 54. The record is 65, but second place is just a hit away.

Mike’s presence might have played a role in Tom’s offensive upswing this season. Though Tom, a team captain, has always been a valuable defensive player, he has traditionally had difficulty with his bat speed. Last season, he hit .288.

In rough times, hitting can be a sore subject between the Bonettos, who nonetheless agree they are best friends.

“I usually don’t talk to Michael during a ballgame,” Tom said. “After a bad outing at the plate, where I would notice a mechanical problem in his swing, I would tell him, ‘Keep your weight back and be more aggressive,’ and he would jump all over me. That’s the last thing he wants to hear.”

Tom can hardly criticize his brother’s aggressiveness on the football field, however. Mike might be better at belting players than smacking baseballs.

At least Occidental football Coach Dale Widolff thinks so. Widolff noticed Mike last summer when the team went through a form-tackling drill that required each player to sprint downfield, avoid a blocker and tackle a ballcarrier.

Mike excelled at the drill.

“We had never thought of him as a defensive player,” Widolff said. “He jumped out at us. The speed at which he could do it. And even thought he was a quarterback, the fact that he would jump right in there and put his nose right into the guy really impressed us. We thought maybe we were wasting him as (starting quarterback) Tony Werbelow’s backup.”

Widolff suggested Mike move to defensive back and, within a week, he was a starter.

“The thing that helps make Mike a great athlete is that he picks up a new physical skill very quickly,” Widolff said. “The guy learns a skill as quickly as anybody I’ve ever been around. It’s phenomenal.”

Mike’s athletic triumphs have come as no surprise to Tom . . . or those who read his door.